In an effort to add a veteran wide receiver, the Texans will visit with Keenan McCardell at Reliant Stadium today.

McCardell, 37, is entering his 17th season in the NFL. He spent the past three seasons with the San Diego Chargers after stops in Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, Cleveland and Washington. He has recorded five 1,000-yard receiving seasons, with his most recent coming in 2003.

McCardell, 6-1 and 191 pounds, started 11 games last season and finished with 36 receptions for 437 yards. He had 70 receptions for 917 yards in 2005.

McCardell has been a possession reciever his whole career, maybe one of the best of all time. He is coming home, he most likely would be cheap and at the very least would provide some much needed experience in training camp for a position that does not have a lot of time in the NFL.

And I gotta say that Kubiak & Co had a thinking process moving at about the same speed to have it take a whole year for them to figure out that Moulds wasn't our #2 guy and Walters was. And it's not like they were rookies just leaving college and coming into the league with no history in the NFL.

Truth lies in the fact he isn't with any other team yet...even the desperate ones.

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Moulds probably isn't keen on going through another training camp at this point in his career. I'd look for Eric to sign with someone in the middle of the preseason, after camps break.

This team has needed a Keenan McCardell for 5 seasons. Unfortunately, it might be a year too late. McCardell's production fell way off last season, and gave the Chargers nothing in their playoff loss to New England.

McCardell has been a possession reciever his whole career, maybe one of the best of all time. He is coming home, he most likely would be cheap and at the very least would provide some much needed experience in training camp for a position that does not have a lot of time in the NFL.

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This is an interesting visit. If it's all about 'leadership' and 'setting examples', why don't we just hire Jerry Rice as a coach or consultant? I'm not sure what purpose trotting out an old 'has been' will serve to benefit the team, unless it's specifically for the knowledge he can impart to our young WRs.

This is an interesting visit. If it's all about 'leadership' and 'setting examples', why don't we just hire Jerry Rice as a coach or consultant? I'm not sure what purpose trotting out an old 'has been' will serve to benefit the team, unless it's specifically for the knowledge he can impart to our young WRs.

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The way I see it we have an untested #2 that Kubiak and even the Bengal staff were high on and spent a #3 pick on a small college fellow that has a high ceiling from a talent perspective, but perhaps low on fundamentals. McCardell at the very least can help those guys in camp (maybe even our green QB as well) by example. McCardell has been around a long time and should know the deal.

Kubiak wants McCardell, a native Houstonian who played at UNLV, to be a mentor to the younger players as well as a player.

"If we're going to add veteran players, which he is a big-time veteran, been in this league for a long, long time, we have to do it for the right reasons," Kubiak said. "For guys who want to be here to help our young players, help our football team, and guys who can still play the game.

"One thing I wanted to do was to explain to him what I see in our receiver position, how much confidence I have in these young guys. I'm looking for somebody to come in and help them as well as help our football team. That's what he stands for. That's an easy fit. We'll wait and see what happens."

I don't think McCardell would be a bad addition. We are very young and green on both sides of the ball, and I am glad we are pulling in some veteran leadership to help offset the steep learning curve for our rookies. We need all the experience we can buy even if it is just for one season or just for training camp.

I dunno for sure why we need one of these so called "mentors"so bad at WR ?
I thought we took care of that last year with Moulds ? Now AJ has been "mentored", and he had a descent season which included a 2nd Honolulu trip. And this year will be his 5th year in the league so maybe its his turn to be the mentor ?
Now on the other hand if the guy can make a real contribution and we can get him for the right price, i. e. he's a value pick-up hey that's OK.
And if he's a "mentor" to, well OK if that makes John McClain and a few others happy. Whatever.

Wow - times have sure changed in a year. Moulds went from "it's like having two #1 receivers on the team" and "he's mentoring AJ all the time" to a punchline. A fine example of great expectations running into reality.

This is an interesting visit. If it's all about 'leadership' and 'setting examples', why don't we just hire Jerry Rice as a coach or consultant? I'm not sure what purpose trotting out an old 'has been' will serve to benefit the team, unless it's specifically for the knowledge he can impart to our young WRs.

The way I see it we have an untested #2 that Kubiak and even the Bengal staff were high on and spent a #3 pick on a small college fellow that has a high ceiling from a talent perspective, but perhaps low on fundamentals. McCardell at the very least can help those guys in camp (maybe even our green QB as well) by example. McCardell has been around a long time and should know the deal.

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If that's the case why not just keep Moulds ?

Not saying that I'm against Moulds, but is McCardell a better reciever than Moulds at this point ? Does he have more knowledge to pass on?

I dunno for sure why we need one of these so called "mentors"so bad at WR ?
I thought we took care of that last year with Moulds ? Now AJ has been "mentored", and he had a descent season which included a 2nd Honolulu trip. And this year will be his 5th year in the league so maybe its his turn to be the mentor ?

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This just crossed my mind, as well. AJ is a two time Pro Bowler, so he should be able to 'mentor' these young dudes through his actions in the lockerroom and play on the field. I know KW is supposed to be learning a lot from him, so why wouldn't the other WRs?

If anything needs 'mentoring', it's our defensive line. Stocked with four first rounders, somebody get on the phone to Bruce Smith to teach these cats some skills!